Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY SEPT 9

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WORLD NEWSWednesday 9 September

Venezuela expands anti-smuggling crackdown with new closure

Colombian police help carry people’s household belongings across the Tachira River from of the border who don’t United Nations’ High Com-
Venezuela, top, to Colombia, on the border that separates San Antonio del Tachira, Venezuela recognize the international missioner for Human Rights
from Villa del Rosario, Colombia, during a mass exodus of Colombians. division. The tribe has long in Geneva on Monday to
dominated economic life denounce what she called
(AP Photo/Eliecer Mantilla) on the isolated Guajira a deliberate campaign of
peninsula, shared by both scapegoating Colombians
FABIOLA SANCHEZ Maduro vowed to “liber- demolition. countries on South Amer- for Venezuela’s deep-seat-
ate” the area subjected to The flood of returnees has ica’s northern tip, and is ed economic problems,
Associated Press the new border closure. overwhelmed emergency heavily involved in smug- such as widespread short-
In just over two weeks, Mad- shelters, leading Colombia gling, which they don’t ages and triple-digit infla-
CARACAS, Venezuela uro has closed six crossings to warn of a humanitarian consider an illicit act. tion.
and deported about 1,500 crisis that could worsen if Venezuelan authorities said On Wednesday she travels
(AP) — President Nicolas Colombians without legal more of its estimated 5 mil- they will respect the Wa- to New York to meet with
status, blaming such mi- lion nationals living in Ven- yuu’s traditional nomadism U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Maduro expanded an anti- grants for a surge in crime ezuela follow suit. and increase education Ki-moon, who last week dis-
and contraband along Colombia President Juan grant programs even as an cussed the crisis with Mad-
smuggling offensive along Venezuela’s western edge. Manuel Santos said Tues- additional 3,000 troops are uro in China.
Nearly 20,000 other Colom- day that he would not be deployed to Zulia. Maduro claims to be the
Venezuela’s frontier with bians, some of whom have provoked. “They are masters of their target of U.S.-backed con-
lived in Venezuela for years, “We will not respond to in- own land,” Vice President servatives in Colombia
Colombia and ordered the have returned voluntarily, sults,” he said. Jorge Arreaza said. “They bent on toppling his social-
fearing reprisals as reports Until now, Maduro’s offen- will be free to move back ist government while turn-
closure of the main border spread about security forc- sive had targeted Tachira and forth, just not with con- ing a blind eye to decades
es uprooting migrants and state across the border traband.” of political and drug-fueled
crossing in the country’s earmarking their homes for from Cucuta, a Boston-size But members of the indig- violence in Colombia that
city in Colombia that has enous community were has made Venezuela a ha-
biggest state. already grumbling by Tues- ven for many of its neigh-
day afternoon. bor’s poor.
The announcement late “We woke up very sad He repeated an offer to
about the border closure. meet with Colombian Pres-
Monday was bound to I don’t think this is what ident Juan Manuel Santos
we deserve, because all to resolve the crisis.
deepen an ongoing diplo- we do is take care of our Santos, who had patched
land,” said Wayuu activist up relations with Venezue-
matic crisis with Colombia, Ricardo Fernandez. Madu- la after a dangerous round
ro also declared a state of of saber-rattling along the
which is struggling to ab- emergency in three fron- border in 2008 by his hard-
tier towns in the state and line predecessor and the
sorb thousands of migrants said more border cross- late Venezuelan President
ings could be closed in the Hugo Chavez, said Mon-
who have fled the crack- coming days. In the same day he is open to talks if
address, he offered to take certain conditions are met.
down. in 20,000 refugees from the “I am ready for dialogue
civil war in Syria. but the fundamental rights,
long relied on smuggled Colombia’s government the human rights of our
gas, food and other goods did not immediately re- compatriots, must never
purchased in Venezuela at spond, but in recent days be violated again,” Santos
it has stepped up a diplo- said. That provoked an an-
bargain-basement subsi- matic campaign against gry retort from Maduro: “I
the border offensive. am the only one who plac-
dized prices. Foreign Minister Maria An- es conditions, because you
In moving his focus north to gela Holguin met with the are the aggressors.”q
Zulia state, Maduro is en-
croaching on a more vital

economic hub around the

oil metropolis of Maraca-
ibo, Venezuela’s second-
largest city.

He could also face resis-

tance from hundreds of
thousands of Wayuu Indi-
ans settled on either side